Currently Playing:

Square Enix has hinted multiple times that we should expect the "open world" to be the norm with mainline series going forward. Personally, I don't that it was necessary for Square Enix to say that, as open world is the logical replacement for the classic world map. World maps serve as symbols for the games world as a whole, but with where we are at with technology, there is no need to symbolize. We can Realize now.

Final Fantasy XV was SE's first attempt at a open world Final Fantasy, and you know what, I think they passed. At the same time I am sure that much more could be done, but I don't know what that much more is because I don't play enough open world games to know what XV is missing or could be better at.

What did XV do well? What did it not succeed at? What could future Final Fantasy titles learn/improve upon?

The world map of Final Fantasy XV was a mixed bag for me.. on one hand I loved the scale and design of it, those massive rock arches were crazy huge, you saw them in the distance but didn't realise just how tall they were until you went under them... and the world itself felt rather believable, as if it could be an actual place.

On the other hand, and this is gonna' sound interesting; It lacked scale. By this I mean the actual area you visit didn't feel huge. In previous games you travel entire worlds and continents, whereas here you visit a town, a few gas stations and a couple of cities, one of which isn't even explored as a city but as a dungeon of sorts.

I'm playing Final Fantasy XII right now, and despite the maps being small, the world itself feels huge since there's variety in the locations, same with my favourite game in the series, X, there's so much variety to the maps and it feels like you've traveled far throughout the game, whereas here everything just seems too conveniently placed close to each other, this "road trip" has me driving twelve miles from one side of the map to the other... isn't a real road trip meant to be MUCH longer than that?

I do think they've got it right, but from here they need to start getting bigger.

Currently Playing:

I think that my biggest criticism of XV's open world is the lack of non combat activities. When you are not fighting, what is there to do? Previous Final Fantasy games have been filled with side activities and in comparison XV is lacking. The return of Hot Cold Chocobo would be awesome in a open world environment. I was fan of the Pitoss Ruins just because of how unique it is in comparison to the rest of the game. It was devilish as fuck, but satisfying to complete (took me 6 hours)

Xxain said:I think that my biggest criticism of XV's open world is the lack of non combat activities. When you are not fighting, what is there to do? Previous Final Fantasy games have been filled with side activities and in comparison XV is lacking. The return of Hot Cold Chocobo would be awesome in a open world environment. I was fan of the Pitoss Ruins just because of how unique it is in comparison to the rest of the game. It was devilish as fuck, but satisfying to complete (took me 6 hours)

Pitioss Ruins and Costlemark Tower were my two favourite dungeons coincidentally both are only accessible at night too. Pitioss was confusing as shit though, traversing that thing was a mind fuck at times, lol.

It was lagging behind compared to other open world titles tbh, it felt like the earliest example of open world games in regards to things to do and execution and as a result came across a bit like they were unsure how to utilise it to both go with and compliment other elements of the game.

Currently Playing:

Xxain said:I think that my biggest criticism of XV's open world is the lack of non combat activities. When you are not fighting, what is there to do? Previous Final Fantasy games have been filled with side activities and in comparison XV is lacking. The return of Hot Cold Chocobo would be awesome in a open world environment. I was fan of the Pitoss Ruins just because of how unique it is in comparison to the rest of the game. It was devilish as fuck, but satisfying to complete (took me 6 hours)

Pitioss Ruins and Costlemark Tower were my two favourite dungeons coincidentally both are only accessible at night too. Pitioss was confusing as shit though, traversing that thing was a mind fuck at times, lol.

Bro, I was talking like Sailor during the Pitioss ruins. It was a weird feeling: It frustrated the shit out of me, but I could not stop though. There is definitely some story being told their. As for the Costlemark Tower, Im mixed about it; it has those punchy goblin guys that I hate sooooooooo much and the block puzzle at the end can go fuck itself. I didn't know there was a specific path so I fucked so much that mob they throw at you at the end was so crazy I had to Ring spam. Ramuh was tired of saving my as by the end of the Costlemark Tower as well. I did love traveling through it though.

Currently Playing:

Xxain said:I think that my biggest criticism of XV's open world is the lack of non combat activities. When you are not fighting, what is there to do? Previous Final Fantasy games have been filled with side activities and in comparison XV is lacking. The return of Hot Cold Chocobo would be awesome in a open world environment. I was fan of the Pitoss Ruins just because of how unique it is in comparison to the rest of the game. It was devilish as fuck, but satisfying to complete (took me 6 hours)

13 didn't have anything to do either, I never got far enough through 12 to know for sure (didn't like it at all) but I've not heard of anything other than fighting in that as well. So that's not exclusive to 15, it's just SE being lazy and skimping on the content in their games

Pitioss Ruins and Costlemark Tower were my two favourite dungeons coincidentally both are only accessible at night too. Pitioss was confusing as shit though, traversing that thing was a mind fuck at times, lol.

Bro, I was talking like Sailor during the Pitioss ruins. It was a weird feeling: It frustrated the shit out of me, but I could not stop though. There is definitely some story being told their. As for the Costlemark Tower, Im mixed about it; it has those punchy goblin guys that I hate sooooooooo much and the block puzzle at the end can go fuck itself. I didn't know there was a specific path so I fucked so much that mob they throw at you at the end was so crazy I had to Ring spam. Ramuh was tired of saving my as by the end of the Costlemark Tower as well. I did love traveling through it though.

Oh yeah that block puzzle was pretty fucking stressful until I figured out you had to do it in a specific order, up until then I kept getting trapped in a room with Nagas and Red Giants, Ramuh to the rescue! Although I did end up with a decent bit of exp afterwarsd, the goblins weren't really much of a problem for me. The thing I liked about it was how eerie it seemed both from the outside and inside, especially with the music playing in the background too. I'd say difficulty wise it was the hardest dungeon for me, Pitioss may have taken me as long/longer, and there was like NO sense of direction, but at least there wasn't any combat involved, lol. It was still a massive pain in the arse though!

Xxain said:I think that my biggest criticism of XV's open world is the lack of non combat activities. When you are not fighting, what is there to do? Previous Final Fantasy games have been filled with side activities and in comparison XV is lacking. The return of Hot Cold Chocobo would be awesome in a open world environment. I was fan of the Pitoss Ruins just because of how unique it is in comparison to the rest of the game. It was devilish as fuck, but satisfying to complete (took me 6 hours)

13 didn't have anything to do either, I never got far enough through 12 to know for sure (didn't like it at all) but I've not heard of anything other than fighting in that as well. So that's not exclusive to 15, it's just SE being lazy and skimping on the content in their games

12 has a number of well put together quests that aren't combat specific, yeah the largest quest is is the hunting clan quest but it's not the only quest.